


houses live and die

by basketofnovas (slashmarks)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Family, Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Morally Unreliable Narrator, Pre-Canon, Referenced Child Murder, Sane Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 07:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18889717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmarks/pseuds/basketofnovas
Summary: One year into the first war, Sirius comes home for Christmas his first year at Hogwarts. His parents are still furious about his House, so Bellatrix meets him instead.





	houses live and die

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as backstory for a long AU I'm working on and hope to post, but it's also canon compliant and readable by itself. Call it an exercise in making Bellatrix as evil as she ought to be while a caring, affectionate older cousin at the same time.
> 
> Title is from "Four Quartets" by Eliot. See end notes for the full stanza I pulled it from; the entire poem [here](http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html).
> 
> I apologize for any mistakes with British English: I'm an American trying my best. Feel free to point out any you spot.

It was snowing when Bellatrix went to meet Sirius at the platform. Thick flakes settled in her hair in the few moments between stepping outside and Apparating. She loosened her cloak inside and watched for the train.

She had left early in order to meet Sirius as quickly as possible, and so that she missed her uncle's return. She was thinking of taking Sirius into Diagon Alley before going home, and the less their parents asked about it the better. They rarely argued with her directly anymore - not since the Dark Lord had taught her enough to win a fight with all of them at once - but they took it out on the others if she wasn't around.

That sort of familial interference was why Cissy had stayed at school. That, and the fact that this was her last gasp of freedom. It was her seventh year. Once she graduated the marriage negotiations would take over her life and she might not be able to leave the house much until she married. She might not even be able to after, depending on her husband. But their parents would accept a need to stay at school and concentrate on her N.E.W.T.s for now. Good scores made for an attractive wife.

Parents stood in small huddles on the platform, talking softly so as to not be overheard. They avoided her. Bellatrix wondered if they recognized her - Bellatrix Black, eldest of a noble and exceedingly dark house - or thought her willingness to travel alone suspicious, or merely considered her far too young for an eleven year old child. Though she supposed many children were cared for by siblings and cousins these days.

If they were suspicious she felt safe alone because she had something to do with the disappearances, they were right. But the Dark Lord required subtlety, so let them assume it was only Black arrogance. She stood evenly, knees slightly bent, arms out a hair from her sides, ready for attack at any moment.

The train doors opened, and not too much time later Sirius disembarked.

He didn't see her immediately, and she took a moment to observe. He was standing near the train with a knot of other Gryffindor first years. She recognized the Potter heir but the other two were unknown, one likely poor in secondhand clothing. They were all dressed for the cold, and she smiled to see Sirius had the Gryffindor scarf she'd sent after his sorting around his neck. Aunt Walburga had sent a howler. Their family was unbelievably petty minded - as though an unexpected sorting and its chance to make friends their family didn't already have was a bad thing.

The unknown children peeled off, but interestingly, the Potter heir stayed with Sirius. As they came away from the train she heard a fragment of speech from him: "--said your parents would be mad..."

Bellatrix raised her hand; they were drifting closer to her anyway.

Sirius spotted her and his face lit up with relief. He darted forward; she heard him call, "No, it's okay, it's my cousin!"

Bellatrix didn't run on the crowded platform, but she strode forward to meet him and swung him up into her arms. He'd not grown much, and she could still lift him easily. "My lion cub," she said, and swung him around while he laughed. "Cats don't hatch from eggs, Sirius - but you did!"

He looked happy. Good. He had sounded happy in his letters, but it was hard to be sure.

Sirius giggled madly and clutched at her shoulders. "Put me down, Bella!"

She sat him on his feet again and mimed wiping her forehead theatrically. "You're getting too big to lift, Sirius," she said. "You'd best stop growing immediately."

"Lions are bigger than snakes, Bella," Sirius said, grinning.

"I see you liked your scarf." She tucked it tighter around him. She was capable of Side-Along Apparation, but didn't want to advertise the fact. Therefore they were going to have to go on the streets.

"Yeah, thanks." He grinned at her, then half-turned. "James, come meet Bella!"

The Potter heir trotted forward, wary-eyed. Bellatrix reviewed the family in her head. Respectably old, with a Wizengamot seat stretching back before the Statute, but living in genteel poverty off of dwindling rents until the present head. He had rescued his family's fortunes by becoming a businessman. Their parents would be horrified. Bellatrix thought it might be a useful acquaintance. The Dark Lord wanted to shake up the complacent aristocracy.

Beyond that, Sirius needed friends. He had only ever had his brother to play with.

"Good afternoon, Miss Black," the boy said, displaying the fact that his parents still thought social graces of some importance. "It's a pleasure to meet you. James Potter." He didn't offer a hand, which was appropriate for either a child meeting an adult or a man greeting a woman; either should wait.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter," she said, exaggerating her accent and brightening her eyes to make it a joke. Surprise flared and turned into a grin on the boy's face. She did offer her hand, and he shook it with miniature adult politeness. "Bellatrix Black. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I think I see your parents coming."

Judging by the expressions on the elder Potters' faces, they weren't pleased to see the Blacks. Bellatrix deemed it a good time to shrink Sirius' trunk and set out. 

"Would you like to have dinner in Diagon Alley before we go back to the house?" she asked as they approached the platform's exit.

"Won't your parents be mad?" Sirius said.

"I'm escorted properly by my cousin, heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," Bellatrix said, elbowing him and making him laugh again. Her voice had slipped automatically into an imitation of Sirius' mother on the last part. 

"But I told them I had business for the Dark Lord." Which she did, but she could pick up the package with Sirius. He would divert any Auror attention, for an additional benefit; they didn't tend to search women with children. "And I thought you might want a chance to breathe before you get back. But don't tell Aunt Walburga. She thinks I'm dragging you along on boring stuff." She put a finger to her lips and grinned.

"Promise," Sirius said. He grabbed her off hand and swung it between them. "Are they still mad?"

"I'm working on them," Bellatrix said, sighing. This would be so much easier with Andy there to help. Not the least because her sudden abandonment of all principles and standards had made the elder Blacks paranoid about a repeat event.

"Where do you think, for dinner?" she asked Sirius to distract him. "French, or Madame Kunigunde's? Or shall we slum it and get pizza?"

"Pizza," Sirius said decisively. "Can we get ice cream after?"

"Ice cream! In December!" Bellatrix shook her head. "If you don't tell your parents, fine."

Sirius dropped her hand and skipped ahead gleefully. She considered his other friends on the way. She also didn't want a repeat of Andy. She'd best find out if any were mudbloods now; if they disappeared so early, Sirius was young and would soon forget.

The Dark Lord had been looking for good examples, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> In my beginning is my end. In succession  
> Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,  
> Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place  
> Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.  
> Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,  
> Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth  
> Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,  
> Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.  
> Houses live and die: there is a time for building  
> And a time for living and for generation  
> And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane  
> And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots  
> And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.


End file.
